-A P P E N D I X

A P P E N D I X B

Using Other Linux Distributions With Your Sun Fire V60x or V65x Server

This appendix contains information and guidelines that describe how system administrators can build the drivers that are needed to support distributions of Linux other than the officially supported version(s) described in this document. This information is for knowledgeable users who are familiar with Linux and with building drivers. It can also be useful for building custom kernels on a distribution, as well as to provide the necessary support for a kernel update.

Many older, and some more recent, Linux distributions cannot be installed on the Sun Fire V60x or V65x server. Frequently, drivers for both the Adaptec U320 AIC7902A SCSI Controller (aic79xx) and the Intel Etherpro 1000 Network Device (e1000) must be updated to support the Linux distribution.

The Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers currently support Red Hat Linux 7.3, Red Hat Linux 8.0, Red Hat Linux 9, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 software.

To determine which new Linux distributions are officially supported on the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers, check the Sun Fire V60x Web site at:

http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/v60x

The following sections provide guidelines for building the drivers that might be needed:

Adaptec SCSI Controller (aic79xx)

Intel PRO/1000 Network Interface Controller (e1000)

Adaptec SCSI Controller (`aic79xx`)

The Sun Fire V60x or V65x server has an Ultra trademark 320 SCSI controller that is supported by only the most recent distributions. At present, the latest drivers can be downloaded from:

http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/

If your Linux distribution includes a driver for Adaptec 79xx devices, use that driver. Otherwise, you must build the driver yourself, using the source from the preceding location. Because distributions can vary widely, detailed instructions for installing those drivers are beyond the scope of this document.

You can check your current version of the driver by using the cat command, as shown in the following example.

# cat /proc/scsi/aic79xx/0 | grep Adaptec

Adaptec AIC79xx driver version: 1.3.7 Adaptec AIC7902 Ultra320 SCSI adapter

Building an Adaptec Driver

If you want to build the driver for yourself, take the following steps:

1. Set CONFIG_AIC79XX_CMDS_PER_DEVICE to 32 and disable CONFIG_AIC79XX_ENABLE_RD_STRM.

These options can cause issues with certain disks if set otherwise.

2. Make a backup copy of your desired kernel and ensure that the VERSION, PATCHLEVEL, SUBLEVEL, and EXTRAVERSION options in the kernel Makefile match the kernel you want to use.

3. Untar the source into your backup copy of the kernel source, configure the kernel with whatever method you want.

Use the distributor's configuration, if available. Remember to set the options mentioned in the previous two bullets.

4. If you want to build only the module itself, use the following command:

# make SUBDIRS=drivers/scsi/aic7xxx modules

With 2.4.x kernels, you must use the make dep command to make the dependencies.

5. Once the process is complete, copy the resulting /scsi/aic7xxx/aic79xx.o driver into the appropriate directory under the /lib/modules directory.

6. Add the driver to the initial root disk (initrd) for boot-time.

Building and packaging for a specific distribution can vary. Refer to your distribution's documentation for further details.

Intel PRO/1000 Network Interface Controller (`e1000`)

The Sun Fire V60x or V65x server has a Gigabit Ethernet controller that might only be supported by the most recent driver distributions. At present, the latest drivers can be downloaded from Intel's Web site.

You can check your current version of the driver by using the cat command, as shown in the following example:

# cat /proc/net/PRO_LAN_Adapters/eth0/Driver_Version 4.4.19

Check the README file in the e1000 source tar file for further instructions on building and installing the driver.

Also see Appendix A of this document for information about setting up your network for installation from a PXE server.

Adaptec SCSI Controller (aic79xx)

Building an Adaptec Driver

Intel PRO/1000 Network Interface Controller (e1000)

Adaptec SCSI Controller (`aic79xx`)

Intel PRO/1000 Network Interface Controller (`e1000`)